PPI scandal continues to fuel bank complaints

We compare the FSA's complaints figures from 2010 and 2011 to show which banks are doing better and which are failing.

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by Victoria Bischoff on Mar 28, 2012 at 15:03

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PPI scandal continues to fuel bank complaints

Banking giants Barclays (BARC.L) and Lloyds (LLOY.L) have once again topped the City regulator's customer complaints table.

Every six months the Financial Services Authority (FSA) pulls together complaints figures for all the banks and publishes them on its website – today it revealed figures for the second half of 2011.

Here we look at how the number of complaints received by the big banks in the second half of 2011 compares with the figures from 2010.

Total number of new complaints

Bank	Complaints H2 2011	Complaints H1 2011	Complaints H2 2010	Complaints H1 2010
Bank of Scotland	206,281	130,469	123,477	115,638
Barclays	281,484	251,563	276,315	245,348
HSBC	116,891	98,150	80,794	81,271
Lloyds	240,923	181,907	175,892	146,846
Nationwide	31,237	30,934	51,653	90,208
Natwest	188,450	147,109	118,765	84,289
RBS	103,385	68,414	53,806	38,138
Santander	177,257	168,888	195,475	244,978

The total number of complaints is up 21% compared with the previous six months, the FSA said. And as you can see above, not one of the big banks saw any kind of decline.

According to the FSA the spike in complaints is largely a result of the recent payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling scandal, with complaints about PPI soaring 85% to 977,510.

Major banks such as Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC (HSBA.L), RBS (RBS.L) and Santander have put aside a combined total of more than £6 billion to deal with the millions of PPI complaints which are still rolling in.

Number of banking complaints

Bank	Complaints H2 2011	Complaints H1 2011	Complaints H2 2010	Complaints H1 2010
Bank of Scotland	55,316	50,881	62,371	68,280
Barclays	146,316	162,611	205,151	195,956
HSBC	65,441	69,149	58,392	65,236
Lloyds	51,586	67,836	89,811	103,686
Nationwide	17,892	22,222	43,663	84,474
Natwest	93,893	96,205	87,271	67,638
RBS	35,361	33,660	30,218	24,100
Santander	138,225	139,386	165,052	216,100

Despite an overall rise in complaints, the number of complaints received about banking specifically fell significantly during the same period, with all major banks apart from Bank of Scotland and RBS reporting a decline.

However, just one month ago the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) – which reports the number of disputes which could not be resolved between the business and the individual – revealed that it received an increased number of banking complaints for all major banks apart from Santander.

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3 comments so far. Why not have your say?

The metrics would make some sense if we knew the comparable number of customers / accounts etc. with each bank. Can't the FOS come up with something better than this? If all banks were consistently poor then the one with the most customers would get the most complaints and would be the one subjected to cheap jibes about 'Topping the customer complains table'.

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I'd like to know how my bank, the Co-op, makes out, esp. in the light of its possible takeover of Lloyds branches and the regulators' doubts about its ability to handle the sudden tripling of its network and accounts migration.

The Co-op has a 'good guy' image which so far I have found justifiable.

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S G

Mar 29, 2012 at 08:59

An interesting fact would be to know how many of these complaints are justified, and how many are just people are jumping on the band wagon. I have had numerous loans and Credit Cards over the years, and always turn PPI down. Howeve out of about 6 friends who did have PPI on loans and credit cards, only one was told, he need PPI to take the loan, the other 5, just see it as a chance to get their money back plus extra...... Yet they all say if anything happened they would have happily put in lagitamate claims

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